The European Film Awards Animation Nominees Announced
As the end of the year approaches, we head into the film Awards Season. We are still some way off from the Oscars, BAFTAs and The Annies but one of the first organisations to reveal its nominations is the European Film Awards.
Held by the European Film Academy, the awards honour the greatest achievements in film across the continent. Films can be nominated for 26 different categories. This year animated films have been nominated in multiple awards.
The European Animated Feature award was established in 2009. In that time it has awarded films such as Song Of The Sea, Loving Vincent, Chico and Rita, and My Life As A Courgette. Last year's winner was Aurel's Josep. This year, for the first time five films are nominated. The Academy has nominated three films from 2009 to 2016 and four films from 2017 until 2020.
Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart's Wolfwalkers was a major presence in last year's Award season, but due to differences in qualification periods has been nominated at The EFA for the category in 2021. The film is nominated alongside one of 2021's most lauded independent features, Flee.
Rounding out the nominees are three films new to the Award season. The long-anticipated Where Is Anne Frank? is directed by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, but is co-produced by French, Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourgish studios. Scandinavian 2D animated feature Ape Star (a Danish, Norwegian and Swedish collaboration) is nominated following its selection for this year's BFI London Film Festival. The final nominee is Even Mice Belong In Heaven, a stop-motion fable from Czech directors Denisa Grimmová and Jan BubenÃcek, co-produced with Polish, Slovakian and French studios.
The EFAs do not have a specific category for animated short, but one animated film was nominated in the European Short Film award this year. Easter Eggs is a Belgian-French-Dutch co-production, written and directed by Nicolas Keppens.
Additionally, Jonas Poher Rasmussen's Flee is also nominated for European Documentary Feature. The French-Danish-Swedish-Norweigian co-production has received many plaudits on the festival circuit and was selected by Cannes, Annecy, Sundance, Animation Is Film and more.
The 2021 European Film Awards will take place in Berlin, Germany on December 11.
